A/n: It's been forever since I've updated, and I'm trying to fix that. Soon I'll update The Closet next and hopefully I start updating regularly again! I want to take my stories off hiatus!

Chapter Twenty One: Streaked With Red (And Fear)

During the summer between fifth and sixth grade, The Pretenders rarely met as a club. Their group slowly drifted apart.

They were getting older. To that age were girls hung out with girls and played truth or dare and guys hung out with guys and played sports. The only time they were supposed to interact was to go out and that was just a dumb title that lasted a few weeks before not "working out".

Jade decided already that she hated middle school, even though she hadn't actually set foot in the place. It felt like just another school where she and her friends would be called "Weird" and "freaky". A place where boring was normal, and not-normal was not okay.

She had been thinking about this for a while now, trying to come up with a way to make all the dumb middle school kids to see that she wasn't weird and definitely wasn't someone to be messed with.

It wasn't until one summer night when it was already dark outside and her dad came home drunk from a party that she got her idea.

She had been home alone because her mom was on a business trip. Her dad waltzed through the door, causing Jade's heart to pound nervously. She peered around the corner from the top of her house staircase to see her dad's lips firmly planted on a young woman's. The women looked to be in her late twenties, and was feverishly kissing her father back.

Her eyes widened.

She knew then that she could never trust a word from her dad's mouth again.

He was a cheater. A filthy, lying, horrible, cheater.

"Dad... What about mom?"

She hadn't meant to say it, it just slipped out before she could shut her mouth.

Her father detached himself from the young woman, glaring at his own daughter, radiating anger.

"If you speak a word of this to her Jadelyn, I'll snap your body in half like a twig, do you hear me?" He breathed. His voice wasn't too loud. It was soft, but filled with anger and resentment.

He grasped the woman's hand, who seemed unbothered by the whole thing. Leading her up the stairs, he cornered in daughter in the wall of the stairwell.

Fear coursed through Jadelyn like it never had before, the dark figure standing above her felt so foreign.

"Promise me you won't tell your mother," he growled.

Her blue eyes widened.

I won't tell her. I won't tell her. I won't tell her.

A small tear leaked out of her tightly shut blue eyes so she opened them widely.

"Jadelyn!" He warned. His breath smelled of alcohol.

"I won't. I won't!" She squealed, her words dipped in fright. Her stomach doing flip flops in her throat. She felt like she would die from the cold hard fear coursing through her veins.

Her father knew now she wouldn't ever speak a word of this to her mom, but he needed her to know he wasn't bluffing. Roughly but quickly, he grabbed the small girl my the shoulders and felt his fist collide with her eyes, leaving it a deep purple. He didn't mean for it to hurt too bad or anything. He loved his daughter.

He just wanted it to sting a bit, so she'd know what was coming for if she even hinted about his affair to Mrs. West.

With the dirty work done, he gazed at his lover excitedly, pulling her off to his room.

Jade rushed off to her room, staring at her own reflection in the mirror. Her black eye really wasn't too bad. There wasn't very much swelling and the skin was only a light shade of purple. It wasn't anything she couldn't hide with makeup.

Jade checked her new Pearphone she had gotten for graduation. It was only ten and the pharmacy near her house didn't close till eleven. She had time.

She shrugged on a black sweatshirt, zipping up the hood to cover as much of her body as possible. She grabbed the credit card she had stolen from her dad and slipped it into her pocket.

Nonchalantly, she strolled downstairs, opening the front door and slipping outside. She knew that if her dad found out she had snuck out she'd have to sleep in the yard, but at this point, she didn't really care.

It was then Jade realized how to rise to the top of the middle school food chain. How to make everyone love her and respect her and do whatever she asked.

Fear. That was her greatest weapon. She needed to be vicious and she needed to make people afraid.

She was Jade West. She was tough and badass and never let anyone boss her around, but when he father scared her the was had just done so, she couldn't help but comply to his every wish, and that's exactly what she needed to do.

Soon, Jade saw the bright lights of the pharmacy. Excitedly, she rushed inside.

First, she ran to the makeup aisle. She grabbed mascara, eyeliner, eye shadow, and pretty much anything she could find that looked promising.

Jade thought for a moment. The color black was intimidating, but she already wore tons of black. Looking around, an aisle caught her eyes.

The hair products.

She grinned running up and down the aisle staring at the products. She saw a bottle of scarlet hair day that looked fairly rebellious. Excitedly, she took it from the shelf.

Near the head band section though, she found a box of red and white hair extensions that clipped into hair.

Indecisively, she took that too. She could decide later.

Jade purchased the items excitedly and began the walk home.

The next day Jade found herself awake at around nine in the morning. Groaning from lack of sleep, she got up to smother her eye in makeup until the purple skin was impossible to see. She wore a heavy caking of face powders and a thick line of eyeliner around bother eyes.

She liked the black circles the eyeliner gave her. It was a bolder scarier look, and exactly what she was going for.

Ecstatically, she called Cat, explaining that she had a fun day of makeovers for them, leaving out all major details. Cat obliged happily, telling her to come over right away.

Jade was so excited she forgot to put her shoes on as she dashed to Cat's house, her bare feet scampering across the ground. Mrs. Valentine let her in without a second thought and she raced up to Cat's room.

"What are you so excited about Jadey?" Cat asked, bewildered but excited at the same time.

"I brought hair dye!" Jade exclaimed, holding up the bottle of red hair dye. "And hair extensions AND tons of makeup! We're going to recreate ourselves for middle school next week!"

Jade wasn't the type of girl who went all gaga for makeovers, but the concept of hair dye excited her.

Cat sort of just loved to go with the flow, so she shrugged her shoulders excitedly. "Yay!" She sounded, clapping her hands happily.

"Yay is right! So, who do you think would look better with red hair? Me or you!? I think you'd look awesome in it! It would go with your... Excited essence, you know? And the hair streaks for me, cause I feel they look a bit more edgy and intimidating."

"Me?!" Cat squeaked her eyes widening. "Dying my hair!?"

Jade shrugged. "Sure why not. If you don't like it we can always dye it brown again. It'll be fun!"

Cat never really needed much convincing, and look she was sitting on the edge of her bathtub, a towel draped around her shoulders as Jade read the instructions of the hair dye.

"Are you excited?" Jade grinned, beginning the step by step instructions on the bottle.

"Yeah! What color is my hair gonna be again!?" Cat replied.

Jade rolled her eyes, suppressing a laugh. She looked around the room for an easier way to explain it. On the bathroom counter was an empty bottle to some power drink. She grabbed it, holding it in front of Cat's face.

"It will be pretty much the color of the label of this bottle," Jade explained, and Cat beamed.

"It's so happy!" She cried.

Slowly, Jade watched herself turn Cat's hair the red magenta color, and for her hour and a half of work, she was extremely pleased with the results.

"Now we should do makeup, and try putting the hair extensions in your hair," Cat said, really getting into the swing of things. She had just stared at her new red haired self for almost a minute, screaming about what a good hairdresser Jade was.

The two girls ripped open the box of hair extensions and begin clipping the red and white ones throughout Jade's hair, spacing them out evenly and cutting them to her hair length. Jade smirked at her newly streaked brown hair.

"Now we should do makeup!" Cat decided happily. "Jade you're already wearing a ton, you should remove it so I can do it!"

Jade's eyes widened nervously.

"I uh... No, I worked hard on it!" She excused.

Cat looked confused. "But you're gonna get to do my makeup? Isn't that the point of a makeover?"

"I payed for it!" Jade snapped.

"We can use my makeup then," Cat suggested.

"Cat. I'm not removing my eye makeup. I worked hard one it." Jade finalized.

Cat leaned into her a bit closer, her new red hair making her look a bit more sophisticated.

"Jade," She said softly. "Are you... Are you hiding something?"

Jade stood up defensively. "No! What do you mean?! Who told you that?!"

"It- I just- Sometimes my mom says things about your dad that I-"

"Well your mom should mind her own fricken business!" Jade yelled, obviously fuming.

"My mother practically raised you!" Cat reminded her.

A silence arouse from between the two girls, neither knowing what to say.

"I'm sorry a made you mad Jadey... We don't have to do makeup if you don't want to." Cat said calmly, giving Jade a small smile.

Jade smiled back, purely with shock.

She had just seen a whole new side of Cat. A smarter side of the girl. The side of Cat that didn't have to pretend.

Jade outlined the black circle around her eye, wishing she didn't have to pretend too.